For entities that operate trucks or other vehicles to ship goods from place to place, the efficiency of doing so has a major impact on the cost of conducting business. Such entities can experience major reductions in cost if the vehicles are operated in the most efficient manner possible, especially when the efficiencies are multiplied over large fleets of vehicles operated over routes that each span thousands of miles.
One focus of improving the efficiency of the operation of vehicles is to improve fuel economy. Fuel economy is improved when the operator of the vehicle uses an ideal gear position that allows the engine RPM to be as low as possible, while at the same time meeting the current performance requirements of the vehicle with regard to traffic conditions, road characteristics, and/or the like. While operators had traditionally attempted to select an ideal gear position through training, experience, and guesswork, recent attempts have been made to provide indications to the operator of the ideal gear position at a given time.
While those attempts use wheel torque or preconfigured engine speed set points to determine when to display a shift notification, what is needed is a system and method for displaying shift notifications to a vehicle operator that takes into account more sources of information than mere preconfigured engine speed thresholds and/or wheel torque ratios, to help vehicle operators improve fuel efficiency while maintaining a perceived level of vehicle performance.